"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
EPISODE FOURTEEN: "CRIMES OF ASSOCIATION"

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(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)


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        <<Act Two>>

        Tuzanor, Minbar -- the point of Gajn'darahl -- just after local sunset, August 9th, 2267.

        Julia moved slowly up the steps, knowing in her heart what it was she was looking for -- what it was that had drawn her here, this time. She slowly stepped onto the last arc in the stairwell, just below where it opened up onto the level, ancient surface built in this place long before the coming of Valen -- and the spot where darkness had first bloomed within her soul, almost seven years ago. She remembered the words that Walther Gideon had spoken that day, of course -- as she remembered everything else that had lead up to that terrible moment -- as well as the loss and triumph that had followed.

        {Of course...the last player arrives on the scene. Julia; welcome to our little gathering -- as you can see and as I warned you, not so long ago, if you play with the Greater Lights, you're going to get burned...}

        She paused, finally going down on one knee -- and after a moment, her cloak held tightly around her against the growing evening chill, her hand came down upon the spot where everything had changed, while the other came up to rest on the scar at her side. Her eyes narrowed -- yes, it was still there -- a part of the stone that was slightly darker than the rest. The Religious Caste acolytes who'd found her here, afterwards, had very carefully cleaned away as much blood as they could... but no one, not even they, were perfect.

        Her hand trembled for a moment -- she'd *failed* Jennifer that day, when Gideon's dark partner had struck her down from behind... and ever since then, she'd forced herself to go farther, to do things that were considered impossible for... people her age -- to atone for that mistake... and for others. Why, in Valen's Name, had the...

        <Distributor-of-Word>

        Chosen her to be his Seeker, if this was true? The youngest Ranger ever to captain an Interstellar Alliance warship, they'd named her... and that was a truth -- a terrible truth, all things considered. And the worst thing of all was this -- if she continued to press herself and her crew as hard as she already had, eventually the day would probably come when she would stumble...

        And fall. Again.

        "Julia? Are you there?"

        She winced -- and again remembered one of the things her mother had told her, many years before -- one of the liabilities of command was that even on leave, there would always be someone looking for the captain to solve their problems. "Right here." she wearily replied, as Klairika emerged out of the darkness behind her.

        The Brakiri took stock of the scene in front of her, and finally nodded. She understood what was going on, of course, and since that was the case... "Do you still find it so hard to escape from what was?"

        Julia nodded regretfully. "Every time I come back to Minbar, I try to come here -- to remember what I did wrong, and why it can't ever happen again."

        "If only it could be that simple. In any case, I'm afraid I have some grave news for you -- there appears to be a problem with our tactical officer. I tried to contact her a short time ago, and received no reply -- shortly thereafter, I called up to the *Shard of Night* and spoke with Anla'shok Fenric..."

        Julia's eyes narrowed in concern. "Since you couldn't contact her, you had him try to find Sheynell by tracking her crystal..."

        "He failed in that attempt."

        "What?" she burst out, rising to her feet... her prior concerns now forgotten in the here-and-now. "Is that even possible?"

        "Only if someone or something has attacked her in some way." Klairika observed. "Perhaps we should call everyone together, before we start our search."

        Julia sighed -- and it had looked like it was going to be such a *nice* holiday, too.

* * *

        A chill wind whipped across the glaciers of Chayankeer, a breeze that found its way into every nook and exposed rock surface -- but not into the small abode hidden on a spire of rock high above one of those frozen, gently creaking rivers of ice. The abode was a secret place, a redoubt used for many purposes... and now it was time to revisit one such, as a faint whispery sound began to fill the air, and a small, stealthy flyer emerged out of the night to gently alight upon the refuge's landing pad. A moment passed, and then the flyer sank out of sight on that pad, and vanished.

* * *

        "You play a dangerous game, telepath. Perhaps more dangerous than any of us realize."

        Viyana turned her gaze away from the prize slung over her partner's shoulder, and laughed, as the 'owner' of the refuge stepped forward to meet them, his breath steaming in the chilly air -- and then her amusement quickly faded into calculation. "I play the only game that matters, the game of *truth*. We've been looking for her for a very long time, as well you know..."

        "And now that you have her, what will you do?" the Minbari asked. "And more specifically..."

        "What can we do for you?" Viyana finished for him, his thoughts more-or-less transparent to her honed telepathic senses. "Her kind have humiliated you, of course... and now you seek revenge."

        "Perhaps this is true, and yet perhaps the matter is more... complex then you imply. In any case... as you would say, our hand is not yet played out -- while *you*, little telepath, now need somewhere to hide, until this one's changeling captain grows tired of the search. Then may you move safely... but not before."

        Viyana clamped down on her anger -- little? How dare he imply... no -- she wasn't about to let herself descend to *his* level. "Which is why we've come here, of course -- why we accepted your offer of help. We made sure the others couldn't track us here, and while we're waiting... I think it's time we asked a few questions."

        The Minbari's mouth quirked into a mirthless smile. "In that case, we will leave you to your... inquisition."

* * *

        The glass was cold - with a sudden cry, Sheynell drew her hands away from the portal, and the impossible sight outside - the barren red sands outside Main Dome, the sky pale violet and ocher before the coming dawn -- while seemingly tiny bullet cars ran back and forth through the tubes outside. Too many times she'd stood here looking out, watching them move to and fro, before the...

        Before everything had changed.

        Before her family had abandoned her into the hands of the Psi Corps - the only force capable of restraining her wild, uncontrollable, newborn P12 abilities. She remembered crying, of trying to hang onto her mother's arm, not understanding the fear that was filling her mind... her family's fear. And then the black-uniformed woman had taken her away from them, all the time assuring her that she had a new family now, and that there was no reason to be afraid. Elspeth had looked after her for a very long time... until she'd been called away on a mission she hadn't returned from. Shortly afterwards Paul Frost had taken her under his wing... and then, of course, after he'd turned away from the Corps and she'd clawed her way to the top of the Major Academy's pyramid of power... had come Alfred Bester. Her former idol -- and final mentor, before she'd turned away from the Corps herself.

        But enough of that for the time being -- she was distracting herself from the key concern -- how much time had passed since the two Bureau agents had confronted and captured her? She remembered Viyana's mockingly triumphant face above her, of how she and her partner Edward Cattrall had closed their trap. Time had passed -- but *certainly* not enough for them to take her out of Minbari space and back here, back to Main Dome, where she'd been born. And was there *ever* a time when this part of the Dome was empty?

        The mindscape around her suddenly shimmered and vanished at that point, to be replaced by darkness - and a familiar 'voice'. <I didn't really think that would work - but I thought I'd try, just for the Hell of it>

        <Viyana - how dare...>

        <Command me, would you?> the poisonous whisper of her former friend came back. <I think not... you're not the one in control of this situation, Servant - you are, however, completely at my mercy, courtesy of a few new techniques we've mastered since your fearless leader was deposed>

        <Don't call me that! That's not what I am, not any more!>

        <Is that what you think?... that just because you ran away from your past to become Anla'shok, that you've paid for your crimes against humanity and your fellow telepaths? That as a Ranger, you've paid your penance for willingly following Alfred Bester as his most trusted servant for the better part of three years?> The mocking sound of Viyana's laughter descended to smother her in the darkness. <You've not yet *begun* to pay for your crimes - and here and now, we will explore them together, and reveal to everyone the nature of your disease.>

        Then it was that a now well and truly furious Sheynell struck against the dark barrier surrounding her - and found, to her astonishment, that it was all but impervious to her attack. Which meant...

        <Did you really think that Viyana was the only one watching over you?> Cattrall's amused drawl came down to her. <This trap is one we devised together - a trap not of body, but of mind. And now, Sheynell - now it's time for you to tell us what we want to know.>

        <Tell us your secrets...> Viyana insisted. <Show us your crimes!>

        <Tell us!>

        <SHOW US!>

        The mindscape shimmered again, this time painfully -- before anchoring itself onto a new and decidedly different vector, as what was became what had been. And even as Sheynell began to scream, she knew that she was falling into...

* * *

        "Good day, sir -- you're well this morning, I trust?"

        Bester laughed, the sound pleasant in the stillness of his office even as he turned away from the window to face her. "As well as can be expected, given the present state of affairs. This may be the worst one yet, Sheynell -- worse even then the... situation that developed on Babylon 5 towards the end of last year."

        "Is that even possible?" she asked, as Bester poured her a cup of coffee and passed it over. "After all, if we hadn't moved against Frost when we had... it would have been very bad. What he intended to do to us..."

        "Never came to pass." Bester clarified, his eyes suddenly gone hard as agates. "But let me return to our present concern -- in recent days, we've been gathering evidence that suggests two of our most powerful field agents, Andrus and Powell, have been aiding the various rogue camps in their strikes against our facilities here on Mars. Within the last six hours, our Bloodhound units captured one of their associates, and were able to... retrieve evidence that confirms this hypothesis. As such..."

        "As such," she replied, now all business, "You would like me to take my team and deal with this problem." Her 'team', of course, was the hand-picked group of young P12's that Bester had chosen to follow her in the weeks since she'd passed the last of his tests and had been commissioned as a full fledged officer of Psi Corps -- some had already nicknamed her team 'the Hand of Bester'. Already they'd taken down three powerful rogues -- how would this hunt be any different?

        Bester nodded. "That is your assignment, Miss Keynes -- this threat to the stability of the Corps must be elliminated at once, for the good of us all."

        "I won't fail you, sir."

        "No... of course you won't. Now go -- it's time for us to deal with this matter, the only way we can."

        "And when I return?"

        "There will, of course, be another assignment waiting for you and the other members of your team..."

* * *

        A cry of astonishment and triumph escaped from Viyana's lips, and after a moment she lifted her hand away from Sheynell Keynes' face, and laughed. "So -- she and the others were the ones who killed Andrus and Powell -- I thought they were the ones who'd done it, but I never knew for *sure*!"

        Cattrall nodded his understanding. "Until now. And since every other member of Bester's 'Hand' is dead except for her..."

        "We have our first conclusive piece of evidence demonstrating her guilt." Viyana observed. A lot had changed since the pre-Telepath War days, of course -- and one of the chief changes had been that telepathic evidence presented by the Bureau's P12 operatives could be presented in court -- but *only* if the individual in question was proven, beyond a doubt, to be a war criminal. Sheynell Keynes, of course, *was* one in her honest opinion -- an opinion that Cattrall appeared to share.

        Her expression sobered then, however -- it would in all likelihood be extremely difficult to convince the Director of this truth, however. What they would have to do was convince a majority of the Vice-Directorial council that the case should be pursued -- that it was necessary for them to prosecute Keynes to the full extent of the law. And that she *might* even be the lead they could use to find Bester.

        For now, however -- for now, it was far too late, and that meant... "I think it's time for us to administer another dose of blockers, Edward. We need to rest before continuing with this."

        "Sounds good to me." Cattrall agreed. "After all, we still have to wait a few days before we can even *begin* to move."

        Viyana nodded regretfully -- she was as impatient as he to get the Hell out of here and back to Mars -- but their Warrior Caste Minbari ally had been right. If they moved too soon and too openly, Tikopai and her loyal followers would probably pounce. No... she would be careful -- she *had* to be careful, for victory to be assured.

* * *

        The Ranger Compound -- Early Morning. August 10th, 2267.

        "Let's face it, people..." Julia wearily began, as she, Klairika, Veyshahk and Dasouri grimly considered the situation at hand -- and the complete lack of progress that had been made during the course of the long, sleepless night just concluded. "Whoever's kidnapped Sheynell's done a damn good job of covering their tracks -- we need a clue, and we need one soon, if we're to have a hope in Hell of finding her, and them."

        "Kidnapping, as you name this action," the Drazi noted, "Always happens for a reason -- is it not normal for those who kid-nap to issue demands or ransom, in order that the individual kid-napped may be returned?"

        "You assume," the doctor pointed out, "That they have any intention of returning her, Dasouri. This has yet to be proven to our satisfaction."

        "And who is 'they'?" Klairika asked, as Julia rubbed her eyes and drank deeply of the tea which, along with a light breakfast, Will and Jen had arranged to have brought to them a short time before. "This force that has taken her has struck to the very heart of Interstellar Alliance power -- that they have done this implies resourceful intent -- and also a great deal of guile."

        "Another question we must also ask," Dasouri added, "Is whether our officer has been taken off of Minbar."

        "I'm fairly sure we can, for now, elliminate *that* possibility." another, familiar voice announced, and all the Rangers rose to their feet as their High Councillor swept into the chamber, Larieken at his side. "As all of you may or may not know, shortly after we learned that Anla'shok Keynes had vanished from this place, your Val'na asked me if we might... begin to discreetly scan all ships leaving Minbar. We received approval for this very quickly, as a matter of fact -- while no... lifesign matching your tactical officer's has been detected since that search has begun."

        "Which means that she, and probably her kidnappers, are still on Minbar." Veyshahk replied, his brow furrowed in thought. "Which brings us back to the nature of those individuals."

        "As it turns out," Westcastle replied, "Your tactical officer has a few ideas as to their nature -- and has come up with an interesting theory that I happen to like -- one that almost seems to make sense. Larieken?"

        "I have made some inquiries," Larieken continued, "And have learned some interesting truths. What none of us realized upon our arrival was that a conference of telepaths from the various Alliance worlds was taking place on Minbar upon our arrival. Included in this conference were telepathic representatives from the faction of the Earth Alliance Bureau of Telepathic Integrration uninfected by the Drakh Plague. The youngest member of that embassy was a P12 human telepath named Viyana Metois."

        Julia's eyes widened as she turned to face Klairika -- and after a moment, her first officer nodded in understanding. In recent weeks, Sheynell had begun to slowly open up and tell her friends about some of her experiences in the Psi Corps before the Telepath War -- and among those remembrances had been a story of something that she and her former best friend had seen on Mars, years before -- that friend, Sheynell had mentioned matter-of-factly (almost *too* matter-of-factly, Julia now thought) had been named Viyana. And if that former friend and this visitor to Minbar were one and the same... "Sir -- do we know of the present whereabouts of this Metois woman and her partner?"

        "We do not." Westcastle replied, "And it doesn't look like they've left the planet, either. Which does seem to imply that they might be the ones responsible for this kidnapping, doesn't it?"

        Julia bared her teeth in a predatory grin. "Yes, sir." she replied, "It does *indeed*." But then her grin faded. "Which still doesn't help us with the problem of where they've *gone*, though."

        "In that, Val'na, you may be wrong." Julia raised a eyebrow as another Minbari swept into the room to stand at Larieken's side -- belatedly, she realized that this was probably Belaii, his chosen -- as well as nearly a Ranger herself. "While Larieken and the High Councillor came to meet you, he instructed me to make a number of other inquiries -- the most critical, of course, was to see if what you would call our 'Air Traffic Control' facility detected any... unusual activity over Tuzanor last night."

        "And?"

        Belaii smiled. "At first, the superior at that facility insisted that no such activity had been detected... at which point, I asked to see the records of the time period in question. An anomaly was detected -- an abberation the controllers had considered only a 'ghost' -- for even with our advanced technology, abberations such as this are known to show up, from time to time."

        "Show us." Julia commanded. Belaii inclined her head -- and a moment later, the room darkened and a holographic display sprang into being showing the airborne traffic over Tuzanor during the time frame in which Sheynell had vanished -- and after a moment, Belaii enlarged and enhanced a faint and blurry, nearly invisible signal that seemed to approach the Ranger compound, and then retreat out of the Valley of Sorrows some time later, eventually vanishing from the field of view. "And if that was a real target -- where was it going?"

        "The Plateau of Chayankeer." Larieken replied, his face solemn. "One of our highest mountain wildernesses -- and the home of one of our smaller warrior clans."

        "Oh *damn*." Julia whispered. Which was, of course, the former clan of Lanniel, the new White Star Fleet commander. "The Storm Dancers."

* * *

        Beacon 1711-Beta -- near the boundary of human/Minbari space.

        The transfer gate orbited all alone between a massive Jovian-class world and its largest satelite, and was one of the loneliest in the series of gates that
stretched between Earth and Minbar. And then, all of a sudden it wasn't, as the gate suddenly came online, and spat out a small transport, its crew taking a short break before continuing the trek onwards towards the Interstellar Alliance capital.

        Traffic between the Earth Alliance and Minbar had dropped off significantly since the Drakh had poisoned the peoples and creatures of Earth with their plague. The corporations in charge of the larger passenger liners were finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet in this age of uncertainty -- while it was known for even the smaller flights to be more empty than full. This was one such, and as a result, the transport's passengers had significantly more room to themselves then was common... which was, as it turned out, entirely acceptable to one of the passengers.

        The woman still wore the grey cloak she'd worn when meeting with the Director of the Bureau of Telepathic Integration, over a day and a half before -- with the hood drawn up to conceal her features. Some of the other passengers found this curious... but some reason, none of them were eager to inquire as to the reason, nor the crew for that matter. It seemed... evident that the woman wanted her privacy, and who were they to disturb her?

        That this was not normal didn't occur to any of them -- if another telepath had been aboard, certain questions would have been asked -- but the woman had already ensured that no other telepath would be on this particular flight, and that no questions would be asked. While in several more days, the flight would finally reach Minbar... and then?

        The woman drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly, trying to fight off the fear she was feeling -- not fear at what lay ahead, but fear of what the Bureau's agents might have already done to Sheynell Keynes. Her Ranger comrades would undoubtedly have already started a search, while Julia...

        While Julia's damnable luck would probably work in her favour, like always, which meant she and her crew would probably find Metois and her partner, *and* their hideout before too much time had passed. Valen willing, this would not be *before* her arrival, for if the Rangers were to confront two desperate P12 telepaths willing to do anything to further their cause...

        No! -- the remembered song supporting her, the woman decided that she would simply have to arrive on-site before that confrontation took place. There was no other option.

        Could *be* no other option, if further bloodshed and injury were to be avoided.

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        To be continued...

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